Minister
for Information & Broadcasting, Shri Venkaiah Naidu announced various
initiatives concerning different sectors at the concluding session of the 28th
SIMCON which was organized by Ministry of I&B after a gap of 7 years. Shri
Naidu announced
a cash component of Rs. 1 Crore in the Most Film Friendly State Award
to promote India as a Filming destination. In a major push to Community
radio Movement in the Country, I&B Minister
announcedincreased
subsidy for setting up of Community Radio
Stations from 50 % to 90% in the North Eastern States and 75% in other States,
subject to a maximum limit of Rs. 7.5 lakhs. He also mentioned that the
Ministry would be formulating a
National Information & Communication Policy in consultation with States.

Ministry
of I&B organized a 2 day State Information
Ministers Conference (SIMCON) in December, 2016 to
promote the vision of One Nation & Cooperative Federalism. The spirit &
philosophy of Cooperative Federalism
entails every state as an equal partner and stakeholder in the Nation’s
development process. The interactive forum involving States was revived after a
gap of 7 years, keeping in mind the importance of Communication in Governance.
The theme of the conference was Reform, Perform
and Transform: A New Dimension of Communication.

The initiatives of Ministry in different
sectors are mentioned below:

Broadcast Sector

·Simplification of Annual Renewal process
for existing TV channels as part of “Ease of Doing Business”

oBroadcasters who have been given the
permission for Uplinking or Downlinking can continue their operations by simply
paying the annual permission fee upto 60 days before the due date, which by itself
will be treated as permission for continuation of the channel for a further
period of one year.

·A total of 170
channels have been given licences from Jun 2014
till Dec 2016. Of these, 25 licences are given to News channels and 145
licences have been to non-news channels.

·Increased reach of FM Radio all over India-
FM Phase 3 auctions first and second batch completed

oThe auctions for the second batch were
held recently for 266 channels in 92 cities.

·Digitization of Cable
TV to bring the entire country under Digital Addressable System

oThe
deadline for implementation of Phase III of digitization was 31st December,
2015 while for Phase IV it is by 31st December, 2016. Recently Ministry has
extended the cutoff date for Phase IV to 31st March, 2017.

·Akashvani Maitree:
An exclusive service for Bangladesh and Bengali diaspora launched by All India
Radio. Baluchi Multimedia website and Mobile App for greater people to people
contact also launched

·Boost to Community Radio movement in the
Country:In
a major push to Community Radio movement in the country, Ministry has
increased the subsidy for setting up of Community Radio Stations from 50 % to
90% in the North Eastern States and 75% in other States, subject to a maximum
limit of Rs. 7.5 lakhs.

·Swachhta Samachar:
Special 5 minutes Bulletin on Swachhta has been started on all weekdays. The
Bulletin includes important news stories, people’s initiative and feature
stories related to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan along with a Swachhta Tip.

Film Sector

·Film Promotion Fund

oTo
provide financial assistance for promotional activities to the films which
would be selected in any competition section of an International Film Festival
or being India’s official nomination to the Academy Awards under Foreign Film
Category

·Film Facilitation Office (FFO)

oSingle
window clearance to facilitate film shootings by
foreign film makers in India.

oFFO
units set up under NFDC premises in November 2015 at Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and
Kolkata. 66 foreign films given permissions in 2015-16

·Swachh Bharat Short Film Festival
organized by the NFDC on behalf of the Ministry, has received over 4000 entries
from across the country in various Indian languages on the theme of the Swachh
Bharat Mission. The key objective of the Festival was to generate awareness,
inspire people and include them as stakeholders in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
Top 20 films selected were felicitated.

·The Ministry has utilized the platform
of Film Festivals to promote India’s endeavour of being a Filming
Destination and Soft Power. Various Country specific Film Festivals have been
organised to promote the possibility of collaboration in the Films Sector. Film
Festivals like the

oIranian Film Festival
- 14 films of the acclaimed and award winning film makers from Iran were
screened.

oEuropean Union Film Festival
– A total of 23 movies from the European Union countries were showcased.

oThe first ever BRICS Film Festival was
held in Delhi – Twenty movies, four each from the five participating countries
were selected for the screening competition.

·On the domestic policy front the
Ministry organised Swachh Bharat Short Film Festival, Children’s Film
Festival and the Patriotic Film Festival with theme Azaadi 70 Saal, Yaad
Karo Qurbani

·Strengthening of the institutions
to promote healthy development of cinema as a medium of communication through
film festivals (Patriotic & Children Film Festivals) across the nation.

· Shyam
Benegal Committee constituted for holistic interpretation of the provisions of
the Cinematograph Act/ Rules has submitted its
recommendations to the Ministry which are expected to provide a holistic
framework.

·Ministry
has also introduced a cash component of Rs. 1 Crore in the Most Film
Friendly State Award to promote India as a Filming destination.

·National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM):
It is a new Plan Scheme to restore, digitize and archive films and filmic
material through National Film Archive of India. National
Film Archives of India in one of
its rare discovery, NFAI acquired 20.43 minutes of the Indian Silent Film
Bilwamangal (1919), thanks to the wonderful cooperation of the Cinematheque
Francaise. It is after 21 years that a silent film has entered NFAI vaults.

Information Sector

·New Print Media Advertisement Policy for
DAVP

oObjective
is to promote transparency and accountability in issuing of Government
advertisements in print media and weeding out ghost/irregular newspapers.

oPolicy
introduces a New Marking System and Circulation
Verification Procedure for empanelment of
Newspapers/Journals with DAVP

·Three member committee to address the issues related
to Content Regulation in Government Advertising constituted as per the
directions of Hon’ble Supreme Court. The committee is
chaired by Shri B.B. Tandon, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India.

·New Business Policy for Publication Division:
The objective to streamline business practices in line with the contemporary
trends prevailing in publications industry. The policy promotes online
readership by pricing the digital version of the publication at 75% the price
of printed version. It acknowledges the growing prospects of e-commerce
and promotes sale of e- books of the division through online platforms.

·360 degree Multimedia Campaigns
to give wide publicity to the schemes launched by the Government. The
activities range from holding of Press conferences, telecast/broadcast of
special programmes on DD and AIR with experts, Multimedia Exhibitions, social
media campaigns using Infographics, animations, graphic plates, short videos,
live streaming of events /conferences. Some of these initiatives include:

·Peoples` participation in Government Advertising
through Crowd- Sourcing: The advertisement for
important events being designed on the crowd sourcing model. An online contest
was also organized by Social Media Cell of the Ministry as a part of 67th
Republic Day celebrations.

·Publications
Division has released the E-version of the India/ Bharat-2016.
Online payment and subscription services
for popular journals and Employment News of Publications Division through Bharat
Kosh Portal of Ministry of Finance.

·Release of books on Rashtrapati Bhavan
published by the Publications Division.
Some of the books are “Around India’s First Table: Dining and Entertaining at
Rashtrapati Bhavan”, “The Arts and Interiors of Rashtrapati Bhavan: Lutyens and
Beyond”, “Discover the Magnificent World of Rashtrapati Bhavan”, “A Work of
Beauty: The Architecture and Landscape of Rashtrapati Bhavan”, “First Garden of
the Republic: Nature in the President’s Estate” among others.

·A book on Courts of India- Past to
Present published by the Publications Division under the guidance of the
Hon’ble Supreme Court was also released.

·Indian Institute of Mass Communication

oThe
Diploma course in Urdu Journalism upgraded to the level of PG Diploma in Urdu
Journalism of nine months duration from the current academic session i.e.
2016-17.

·Vartalap / Regional Editors Conference

oAs a new initiative, PIB Regional Units
are organizing “Vartalap” in various regions across the country with regional
media to interact &create awareness about the new developmental
initiatives/schemes of the government. Regional Editors Conferences were
organized in Jaipur, Chennai & Chandigarh.

Year End Review- Ministry of I&B
Reviewed by Ajit Kumar
on
6:54 AM
Rating: 5